Judgehttp://www.businessinsider.com/category/judge
en-usTue, 26 Sep 2017 15:56:47 -0400Tue, 26 Sep 2017 15:56:47 -0400The latest news on Judge from Business Insiderhttp://static3.businessinsider.com/assets/images/bilogo-250x36-wide-rev.pngBusiness Insiderhttp://www.businessinsider.com
http://www.businessinsider.com/georgia-judge-resigns-after-comparing-confederate-protesters-to-isis-2017-8A Georgia judge just resigned after comparing 'nut cases tearing down monuments' to ISIShttp://www.businessinsider.com/georgia-judge-resigns-after-comparing-confederate-protesters-to-isis-2017-8
Thu, 17 Aug 2017 15:56:38 -0400Daniel Brown
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/5995f1efb0e0b51d008b5c98-563/newsengin19575634hinklemuguse.jpg" alt="Jim Hinkle" data-mce-source="Gwinnet County" /></p><p></p>
<p>A Georgia judge was suspended Tuesday, and later resigned,&nbsp;after comparing anti-Confederate protesters to ISIS, <a href="http://www.myajc.com/news/local-govt--politics/another-gwinnett-official-hot-water-over-facebook-posts/xGngahkX5HqKgTdeNSD7gN/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">according</a> to the Atlanta-Journal Constitution.&nbsp;</p>
<p><span>&ldquo;The nut cases tearing down monuments are equivalent to ISIS destroying history,&rdquo; Gwinnett County Judge Jim Hinkle wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday, <a href="http://www.walb.com/story/36144869/judge-suspended-in-ga-for-comparing-counter-protesters-to-isis" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">according</a> to WALB10.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span>"It looks like all of the snowflakes have no concept of history," Hinkle also posted on Saturday, an hour after the attack occurred, the Journal-Constitution reported.</span></p>
<p><span>"Get over it and move on ... In Richmond VA all of the Confederate monuments on Monument Ave. have people on horses whose&nbsp;asses facing North. PERFECT!"</span></p>
<p><span>Despite telling&nbsp;the Journal-Constitution that he didn't &ldquo;see anything controversial&rdquo; about the posts, Hinkle resigned on Wednesday, according to a press statement sent to Business Insider, just one day after&nbsp;Chief Magistrate Judge Kristina Hammer Blum suspended him.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span>"Hinkle offered his immediate resignation from his position as a part-time Magistrate with the Gwinnett County Magistrate Court," Blum said in the statement. </span></p>
<p><span>"For 14 years, Judge Hinkle has dutifully served this Court. He is a lifelong public servant and former Marine. However, he has acknowledged that his statements on social media have disrupted the mission of this Court, which is to provide justice for all. I have accepted Judge Hinkle&rsquo;s resignation."</span></p>
<p><span>Hinkle's Facebook profile had either been deactivated or made&nbsp;private on Tuesday, the Journal Constitution reported.</span></p>
<p><span>These aren't the only inflammatory remarks Hinkle had&nbsp;made.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span>&ldquo;Well, the U.S. Treasury has just announced the ugliest $20 bill, or any money ever,&rdquo; Hinkle wrote on Facebook in 2016 in reference to&nbsp;Harriet Tubman replacing&nbsp;Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill, the Journal-Constitution reported.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p>He's also made controversial statements about Islam, the Journal-Constitution reported.&nbsp;</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/robert-e-lee-opposed-confederate-monuments-2017-8" >Here's what Robert E. Lee thought about Confederate monuments</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/georgia-judge-resigns-after-comparing-confederate-protesters-to-isis-2017-8#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/us-south-korea-stealth-bombing-drills-direct-response-north-korea-japan-2017-8">The US conducted bombing drills with advanced warplanes as a 'direct response' to North Korea's missile launch over Japan</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/judges-without-law-degrees-new-york-2017-6REPORT: There are hundreds of judges in New York who do not have law degreeshttp://www.businessinsider.com/judges-without-law-degrees-new-york-2017-6
Tue, 27 Jun 2017 01:00:00 -0400Joe Sexton
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/5951e4dcd084cc0c2c8b565b-1066/scales of justice.jpg" alt="scales of justice" data-mce-source="Dan Kitwood/Getty" /></p><p>The news releases are sent out with considerable regularity, brief and basic accounts of actions taken by the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct: A judge is sanctioned for misconduct on the bench; another agrees to give up their job because of questionable behavior in his or her private life.</p>
<p>Many of the announcements note that the judges, as part of their agreement with the commission, pledge to never seek or accept a job as a judge again.</p>
<p>And some of the announcements include a fact that still packs a 21st century punch of surprise: The judges being disciplined are not, and never have been, lawyers.</p>
<p>Take, for instance, the announcement the commission issued today, June 26: &ldquo;The New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct announced that Gary M. Poole, a Justice of the Rose Town Court, Wayne County, will resign from office effective July 1, 2017, and has agreed never to seek or accept judicial office at any time in the future.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Poole consented to resign after the commission began investigating claims that he engaged in &ldquo;repeated, undignified and discourteous conduct toward a woman with whom he had been involved romantically.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Poole agreed to accept the commission&rsquo;s action and signed a stipulation laying out the charges and results. He also waived any confidentiality protections and signed the stipulation knowing it would be made public.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Among other things,&rdquo; the commission&rsquo;s announcement read, &ldquo;the judge was alleged to have yelled demeaning and derogatory things about her and her new boyfriend in public, spuriously threatened her with prosecution, demanded the return of certain personal property and threatened to encourage her ex-husband to commence a custody battle over her children.&rdquo;</p>
<p>And then the final line: &ldquo;Judge Poole, who is not an attorney, has served as a Justice of the Rose Town Court since 1993.&rdquo;</p>
<p>That some judges in New York state are not required to be lawyers, or to have any formal legal training, has been a little-understood fact for much of the last century. It has, on occasion, drawn some notice. In 2006, The New York Times published a broad and damning series on the work of what are known as town and village justices, some 2,000 or so of whom hold court in the state. It made for remarkable reading:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>&ldquo;Some of the courtrooms are not even courtrooms: tiny offices or basement rooms without a judge&rsquo;s bench or jury box. Sometimes the public is not admitted, witnesses are not sworn to tell the truth, and there is no word-for-word record of the proceedings.</p>
<p>Nearly three-quarters of the judges are not lawyers, and many &mdash; truck drivers, sewer workers or laborers &mdash; have scant grasp of the most basic legal principles. Some never got through high school, and at least one went no further than grade school.</p>
<p>But serious things happen in these little rooms all over New York State. People have been sent to jail without a guilty plea or a trial, or tossed from their homes without a proper proceeding. In violation of the law, defendants have been refused lawyers, or sentenced to weeks in jail because they cannot pay a fine. Frightened women have been denied protection from abuse.</p>
<p>The examination found overwhelming evidence that decade after decade and up to this day, people have often been denied fundamental legal rights. Defendants have been jailed illegally. Others have been subjected to racial and sexual bigotry so explicit it seems to come from some other place and time. People have been denied the right to a trial, an impartial judge and the presumption of innocence &hellip;</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The reporting by the Times provoked real and promised reforms. But what many felt was the core problem &ndash; not requiring the justices to be lawyers &ndash; remained unchanged.</p>
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/595194dad084ccc9018b5a63-1024/43121590336b1c4ce360b.jpg" alt="court room" data-mce-source="crobj/Flickr" data-link="https://www.flickr.com/photos/crobj/4312159033/in/photolist-7z3WDx-oKsCcL-9MVX4J-7KXtxw-DtvK-RXzELa-9sMTg8-p9xYAF-nUrSF9-qMQXDS-fKNuRK-pr42KD-pr3Zt4-obWFCD-obDjyK-p9xZ4K-56Wqto-32QGcN-9sMMC6-8Xyi5Z-oXP3gZ-7vzYNY-9fY6o-BTiW4C-pr411g-nUskXn-6JrLVJ-oGh2Pg-4ViY93-nUt6Ln-o9UhLJ-nUrSFj-9uNj1-6JnEjc-fKNjUX-5TcyfW-dPv9vg-9f7RjZ-c968Lb-2z1yrt-oo2Fme-oGh4zv-9SPCGS-2nEkS-cAtKLJ-pBxLeb-fKNjRP-hrUzf-Be2jLb-9y3EeR" /></p>
<p>And so the announcements still come from the judicial conduct committee.</p>
<p>June 22, 2017: A justice of the Rossie Town Court in St. Lawrence County resigned and agreed never to seek or accept judicial office at any time in the future after being accused of mishandling court funds and failing for years to file the dispositions of hundreds of cases over half a dozen years. The justice was not a lawyer.</p>
<p>June 21, 2017: A justice of the Spring Valley Village Court in Rockland County resigned from office, according to the commission, because his felony record disqualified him from being a judge. Despite a 1978 felony conviction, the judge had been appointed to fill a vacancy on the town bench after the prior judge had been removed from office by the commission.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Judge Michel was ineligible to serve as a village justice in the first place because he is a convicted felon,&rdquo; the commission said. &ldquo;Under the circumstances, his departure from office was inevitable, and his agreement to do so sooner rather than be forced into it later was responsible.&rdquo;</p>
<p>May 18, 2017: A justice in a town court in Broome County was ordered by the commission to be removed from office for trying to get his daughter&rsquo;s traffic ticket fixed and improperly trying to influence the judge who was handling appeals of the justice&rsquo;s decisions. The judge was not a lawyer.</p>
<p>The list goes on &ndash; a justice removed for drunk driving; another for physically abusing a colleague; another who, while not a lawyer himself, had nonetheless intervened in a friend&rsquo;s case in another court by appearing as the friend&rsquo;s lawyer.</p>
<p>The commission, first created in 1978, has responsibility for some 3,400 judges at all levels statewide. It handles close to 2,000 complaints a year, and, of course, any number of them can involve judges who are lawyers and who are handling cases in the state&rsquo;s more professional courts.</p>
<p>Just last week, in fact, the commission announced the retirement of a judge working in state Supreme Court. He agreed never to seek or accept judicial office at any time in the future after it was revealed that he&rsquo;d been accepting his six-figure salary despite never reporting to work for several years because of a health issue.</p>
<p>But the majority of the cases resulting in action involve the town and village judges. Marisa Harrison, the public records officer at the commission, said 70 of the cases resulting in discipline over the course of the commission&rsquo;s existence dealt with such judges.</p>
<p>In 2006, the Times listed the explanations for the enduring existence of untrained judges in New York State:</p>
<p>&ldquo;The powerful idea that communities should choose their own destinies, including their own judges. The considerable costs of updating courtrooms and hiring lawyers to preside. The always-popular calls to keep lawyers out of people&rsquo;s lives. And, not least, the power of the justices, who are often important players in local politics, wired into the same party mechanisms that produce the state&rsquo;s lawmakers, judges and governors.&rdquo;</p>
<p>In an email exchange, Robert Tembeckjian, the commission&rsquo;s administrator, said &ldquo;the commission has advocated some reforms regarding the town and village courts.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Two in particular that have come to pass are the recording of all proceedings &mdash; the court system has supplied every town and village court with laptops that have audio capability, and a rule of the Chief Administrative Judge requires all proceedings to be recorded and maintained, and more extensive ethics training for judges, which has resulted in the State Magistrates Association having commission staff make ethics presentations at all of their annual meetings and many of their regional meetings.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Tembeckjian said the commission has not taken a position on whether to require all town and village justices to be lawyers, or whether to replace the current system with a full-time regional alternative such as a district court.</p>
<p>&ldquo;One recent recommendation we have made that has not been implemented yet: a formal training and education program for town and village court clerks that would include accounting training, since maintenance of court fines and records is an important fiduciary responsibility of the town and village courts and the judges that is often delegated to the court clerks,&rdquo; Tembeckjian said.</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/citi-foreclosure-arthur-schack-2010-12" >New York judge yells Citi to get over itself</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/judges-without-law-degrees-new-york-2017-6#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/all-people-blue-eyes-have-common-ancestor-2017-9">All blue-eyed people have a single ancestor in common</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/harvard-mathematician-reveals-algorithms-make-justice-system-baised-worse-black-people-crime-police-2017-6A Harvard mathematician reveals how algorithms are making police and the courts more biasedhttp://www.businessinsider.com/harvard-mathematician-reveals-algorithms-make-justice-system-baised-worse-black-people-crime-police-2017-6
Wed, 21 Jun 2017 08:47:47 -0400Emmanuel Ocbazghi and Leon Siciliano
<p>Cathy O'Neil, a self-proclaimed math nerd and author of "Weapons of Math Destruction" explains how police data leads to bias in the criminal justice system. Following is a transcript of the video.</p>
<p><strong>O'NEIL:</strong>&nbsp;<em><span style="font-weight: 400;">We don't actually collect data on crime, we collect the data that the police collect. I'm Cathy O'Neil. I'm a math nerd, data scientist, and author. When you think about algorithms in the criminal justice system, you have to really think about the data and how the data is built.</span></em></p>
<p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;"> So the way predictive policing works is they take the data, they look for crime data and they really don't have crime data so they use &hellip; their best proxy for it which is usually arrest data which means that police are basically sent back to the same neighborhood where they're already over policing. And in particular they&rsquo;re not sent to neighborhoods that have crime but aren't &mdash; those crimes aren't found. Now if you think about what that means for the algorithms where you're looking for crimes based on the location of previous arrests, or previous convictions, or even previous reported crime, that kind of algorithm is intrinsically biased. </span></em></p>
<p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">And then there's another kind of algorithm that is a little downstream from the predictive policing algorithm. It's called the recidivism risk algorithm. Recidivism risk algorithms are used by judges to determine how long to sentence a defendant. And the higher risk of recidivism, which is the risk of returning to prison sometime in the future, or even just getting arrested in the future, the higher risk, the longer someone gets sentenced&nbsp;</span></em><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">And what ProPublica found was the compass model which is one version of a recidivism model made mistakes by sending people to prison longer, that kind of mistake, twice as often for African-American defendants as for white defendants, at least in Broward County Florida. </span></em></p>
<p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">And if &mdash; &nbsp;there's another kind of mistake you can make which is: you look like you're not coming back, you look low-risk but you actually do come back that kind of risk that kind of mistake was made twice as often for white defendants as for African-American defendants.</span></em></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/harvard-mathematician-reveals-algorithms-make-justice-system-baised-worse-black-people-crime-police-2017-6#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/judge-proposes-sentence-of-1-per-grope-for-sexual-harasser-2017-5Judge proposes sentence of $1 per grope for man convincted of sexual harassmenthttp://www.businessinsider.com/judge-proposes-sentence-of-1-per-grope-for-sexual-harasser-2017-5
Mon, 08 May 2017 20:23:00 -0400Claire Lampen
<p><span><img class="float_left float_right" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/5910d82e73f2f34f008b4742-711/ape-case-overshadows-stanford-commencement-but-protests-muted.jpg" alt="Protesters hold signs to raise awareness of sexual assault on campus in the wake of the national attention brought by the Stanford rape case at the Stanford University commencement ceremony in Palo Alto, California, U.S. June 12, 2016. The case made national headlines after the judge handed down what many considered to be a particularly light sentence. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage" data-mce-source="Thomson Reuters" data-mce-caption="Protesters hold signs to raise awareness of sexual assault on campus in the wake of the national attention brought by the Stanford rape case at the Stanford University commencement ceremony in Palo Alto, California">(Mic) — A Pennsylvania judge recently proposed fining a man $1 for every time he groped a woman.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span>Somehow, Common Pleas Senior Judge Lester G. Nauhaus was being serious — and now, the Allegheny County District Attorney's office plans to report him, the </span><span><em><a href="http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2017/05/04/Judge-Lester-Nauhaus-comments-Allegheny-County-Stephen-A-Zappala-Jr/stories/201705050110">Pittsburgh Post-Gazette</a></em></span><span>&nbsp;reported.</span></p>
<p><span>Nauhaus offered his contentious proposition during an appeals hearing for an 18-year-old offender convicted for sexually harassing a younger girl when they were both in middle and high school. The defendant had&nbsp;groped the victim on a number of occasions and was fined $300 for his behavior.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span>According to </span><span><em><a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/emaoconnor/judge-fines-man-1-for-every-time-he-groped-an-underaged-girl">BuzzFeed</a></em></span><span>, the defendant has been "in the state's child-welfare system for some time." When he appeared before Nauhaus on April 26, his lawyer, Dawn Walters, told the court he couldn't afford the fee and asked for the defendant to serve community service instead. He knew what he did was wrong and wanted to apologize, Walters said, but simply did not have $300.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span>That's when Nauhaus threw out several brow-raising statements.</span></p>
<p><span>"Listen, I can name at least one adult that thinks [groping is] okay," the judge said, adding that the unnamed adult is "an important guy" — an apparent reference to President </span><span><a href="https://mic.com/topic/donald-trump">Donald Trump</a></span><span>&nbsp;as a standard of acceptability for sexual harassment.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span>Assistant District Attorney Jeff Tisak&nbsp;requested Nauhaus impose a sentence of 90 days probation and a no-contact order, saying he wanted the defendant to "stay away from" his client.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span>Nauhaus went further, according to </span><span><a href="http://www.pghcitypaper.com/media/pdf/court-transcript-nauhaus.pdf">court transcripts</a></span><span>:</span></p>
<blockquote>
<p><span>The court: Fine. I'm going to give him a 90-day postponement. He has to do community service. And he has to pay a $3 fine. How many times did he touch?</span><br><span>The victim: I'm going to say about six times maybe.</span><br><span>The court: A $6 fine.&nbsp;</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span>Tisak argued it was "just highly inappropriate to tell a young girl that inappropriate touching is worth a dollar at a time," and that no fine at all would be better than that.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/560072dc9dd7cc10008bc01f-1778/pennsylvania penn state university students sexual assault protest rape psu.jpg" alt="Pennsylvania Penn State University Students Sexual Assault Fraternity Protest Rape PSU" data-mce-source="AP Photo/Matt Rourke" data-mce-caption="Students and others demonstrate on the Penn State campus in support of women police say were depicted on Kappa Delta Rho fraternity's private Facebook pages, Friday, March 20, 2015, in State College, Pa."></span></p>
<p><span>In a statement to </span><span><em>BuzzFeed</em></span><span>, a spokesperson for the district attorney's office said the judge's "conduct has no place in our [judicial] system and the District Attorney will bring it to the attention of the appropriate persons and, if necessary, the Judicial Conduct Board."&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span>It's apparently not the first time Nauhaus has stumbled during his time on the bench. According to the </span><span><em>Post-Gazette</em></span><span>, Nauhaus forced former Pennsylvania Supreme Court&nbsp;Justice Joan Orie Melvin to pose for photos when she was handcuffed following a corruption conviction. The picture was meant to accompany handwritten apology notes to be mailed to every judge in Pennsylvania. An appeals court shut down the photo requirement.&nbsp;</span></p>
<div>
<div data-reactroot=""><span>In this instance, Nauhaus acknowledged to the </span><span><em>Post-Gazette</em></span><span>&nbsp;he was sentencing "an absolutely troubled child" and attempted to explain his brusque behavior in court.</span></div>
</div>
<p><span>"I have to find some way of punishing," he said.&nbsp;"It was obvious he had done something wrong. They came before me with no suggestion. ... It's almost impossible. It's frustrating. I didn't mean to mock. I didn't mean to denigrate. I just wanted somebody to give me an answer. That's their job."</span></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/judges-comment-in-a-sexual-assault-case-could-get-him-kicked-off-the-bench-2016-12" >A male judge's comment to a woman in a sexual assault case could get him kicked off the bench</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/judge-proposes-sentence-of-1-per-grope-for-sexual-harasser-2017-5#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/garbage-can-trash-911-memorial-nyc-tokyo-london-2016-8">Why you won't find a garbage can near the 9/11 memorial</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/judge-judy-friend-hot-bench-2017-5Judge Judy's friend of 40 years explains what she's really likehttp://www.businessinsider.com/judge-judy-friend-hot-bench-2017-5
Sun, 07 May 2017 07:03:00 -0400Eames Yates
<p><span>Judge Michael Corriero has known Judge Judy for the last 4 decades. Judge Corriero served on the bench for 28 years and was elected to the New York State Supreme Court. He's currently the cohost of </span><a href="http://www.hotbench.tv/">Hot Bench</a><span>&nbsp;and is the founder of the </span><a href="http://www.nycjj.org/about/">New York Center for Juvenile Justice</a><span>. Following is a transcript of the video.&nbsp;</span>&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>She became — ultimately became a judge. I became a judge.&nbsp;</em></p>
<p><em>We've known each other, and our paths have crossed. Although we don't necessarily agree on all issues, but we respect each other's point of view. Judy's tough. Yeah, but that's not bad tough — she is who she is. She's open-minded. And she'll listen. And she doesn't take any guff.&nbsp;</em></p>
<p><em>I was in Jamaica when I got an email from your favorite TV judge. And it was Judge Judy, and she says, "Michael." She says, "How are you?" Whatever. "I'd like to talk to you about a program that I'm involved with." The email came in late, and I was going to call the next day, and the next morning I was actually shaving when my phone starts ringing. And it was Judge Judy. Now one thing we know about Judge Judy, she is persistent. And so she said, "How come you didn't respond?" I said, "I'm in Jamaica!"</em></p>
<p><em>I don't think she likes bullies. And — I don't believe she likes people who are trying to take advantage of other people, or her, or the system. And when she gets that sense that this person before me is just trying to con me or whatever that arouses a response on her part.&nbsp;</em></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/judge-judy-friend-hot-bench-2017-5#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/judge-explains-pay-parking-tickets-michael-corriero-2017-4A judge explains what can happen if you don't pay parking ticketshttp://www.businessinsider.com/judge-explains-pay-parking-tickets-michael-corriero-2017-4
Sat, 06 May 2017 07:02:00 -0400Eames Yates
<p><span>Judge Michael Corriero explains what can happen if you keep getting parking tickets and don't pay them. Judge Corriero served on the bench for 28 years and was elected to the New York State Supreme Court. He's currently the cohost of </span><a href="http://www.hotbench.tv/">Hot Bench</a><span>&nbsp;and is the founder of the </span><a href="http://www.nycjj.org/about/">New York Center for Juvenile Justice</a><span>. Following is a transcript of the video.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><em>You got to pay them. You think because you're a judge that you get some advantage? No, I've had to pay all my parking tickets.&nbsp;</em></p>
<p><em>First of all, if you amass a significant amount of parking tickets the key thing is that interest and fines can be attached to those — so if you get a $100 parking ticket and you ignore it, it could go to $1,000 after a while, and if you get so much so, the city can get a judgment against you.&nbsp;</em></p>
<p><em>They can seize your vehicle. They can screw up your credit. Let's say you get 10 parking tickets in New York and you move to California, and you don't pay the parking tickets in New York, the moment you violate them, you can become liable for whatever penalties or fines the municipality decided was reasonable for the infraction. It doesn't evaporate just because you move out of town.&nbsp;</em></p>
<p><em>You always have a better shot at going in and saying — and being humble about it and saying, "Yeah, I'd like to resolve this, but here's my problem." Most clerks working are going to say, they're people too, they get tickets too, they say, "Sure how much time do you need? Come back. But don't ignore me. Don't make a fool of me."&nbsp;</em></p>
<p><em>If I had one theme, it's honesty is the best policy, always. Always. Or — don't say anything.&nbsp;</em></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/judge-explains-pay-parking-tickets-michael-corriero-2017-4#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/watch-neil-gorsuch-swear-in-supreme-court-justice-2017-4'This is your day': Watch Neil Gorsuch swear in as a Supreme Court justicehttp://www.businessinsider.com/watch-neil-gorsuch-swear-in-supreme-court-justice-2017-4
Mon, 10 Apr 2017 12:44:58 -0400Emmanuel Ocbazghi
<p>Neil Gorsuch has officially replaced the late Antonin Scalia to become the 113th Supreme Court justice. Justice Anthony Kennedy, who has been a mentor to Gorsuch, conducted the judicial oath in a public ceremony at the White House. The controversy surrounding Gorsuch's confirmation came from Democrats' belief that Merrick Garland, who was appointed by President Obama last year, should have been confirmed instead. Republican leaders refused to have a hearing for Garland, arguing that the following president should be the one to appoint a new judge. Following is a transcript:</p>
<p><strong>JUDGE GORSUCH</strong>: &nbsp;<em>I see before me so many to whom I owe so much. &nbsp;I know I would not be here today without your friendship and support. &nbsp;Thank you all from the bottom of my heart.</em></p>
<p><em>I want to thank the President for nominating me and for the great confidence and trust he's reposed in me. &nbsp;I want to thank the Vice President for his constant encouragement and friendship throughout this process. &nbsp;</em></p>
<p><em>It's not possible to mention here everyone I should mention, but I'd be remiss if I didn’t thank the President's counsel, Don McGahn, and Mark Paoletta, the Vice President's counsel, and every single person in the White House Counsel's Office for their tremendous and tireless support.</em></p>
<p><em>I </em>want<em> thank Kelly Ayotte and my day-to-day team for their humor, for their sage advice, for their faith, as we spent months and so many miles trooping together through the Senate complex. &nbsp;I want to thank every single person -- and there are so many -- in the White House and the Department of Justice who worked through so many late nights and long weeks on my behalf.</em></p>
<p><em>I want to thank, too, Senator McConnell and Senator Grassley and their excellent teams for their support and leadership. &nbsp;And I must thank my former law clerks and my dear friends who gave so much of themselves so selflessly through these last three months. You are dear to me. &nbsp;This is truly your doing, and this is your day. &nbsp;</em></p>
<p><em>I wish I could mention each of you by name, but you know who you are and you know your names are etched in my heart forever. &nbsp;</em></p>
<p><em>This process has reminded me just how outrageously blessed I am in my law clerks, and my family, and my friends. &nbsp;And I hope that I may continue to rely on each of you as I face this new challenge. &nbsp;</em></p>
<p><em>To my former colleagues and the wonderful staff of the 10th Circuit, I thank you for your faithful service and your friendship over so many years. &nbsp;To my new colleagues and the staff of the Supreme Court, thank you for the very warm welcome. I look forward to many happy years together.</em></p>
<p><em>And I cannot tell you how honored I am to have here today my mentor, Justice Kennedy, administer the judicial oath, a beautiful oath, as he did for me 11 years ago when I became a Circuit judge.</em></p>
<p><em>To the Scalia family, I won't ever forget that the seat I inherit today is that of a very, very great man. &nbsp;</em></p>
<p><em>To my wife, Louise, and my daughters, Emma and Bindi, thank you for your perseverance and your patience, your courage and your love. &nbsp;I simply could not have attempted this without you. &nbsp;</em></p>
<p><em>And to the American people, I am humbled by the trust placed in me today. &nbsp;I will never forget that to whom much is given, much will be expected. &nbsp;And I promise you that I will do all my powers permit to be a faithful servant of the Constitution and laws of this great nation.</em></p>
<p><em>Thank you.</em></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/watch-neil-gorsuch-swear-in-supreme-court-justice-2017-4#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/judge-approves-27-million-driver-settlement-in-lyft-lawsuit-2017-3Judge approves $27 million driver settlement in Lyft lawsuithttp://www.businessinsider.com/judge-approves-27-million-driver-settlement-in-lyft-lawsuit-2017-3
Thu, 16 Mar 2017 22:43:24 -0400Heather Somerville
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/582f4f31e02ba7e5008b54a0-2400/ap_417629995193.jpg" alt="lyft driver passenger" data-mce-source="Jeff Chiu/AP" data-link="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Ride-Hailing-Apps/37be1dd202a54fc4925e63bd9cfc632b/4/0"></p><p>SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A U.S.<span> judge </span>gave final approval on Thursday to a settlement agreement in a class-action lawsuit against Lyft, ending a legal case that challenged the independent contractor status of the ride-hailing service's drivers.</p>
<p>U.S. District<span> Judge </span>Vince Chhabria in San Francisco gave his final approval to the $27 million settlement, after granting preliminary approval in June, according to court filings.</p>
<p>The<span> judge </span>had previously rejected a $12.25 million settlement offer because it "short-changed" drivers.</p>
<p>Lyft drivers in California had sued the company, arguing they should be classified as employees and therefore be entitled to reimbursement for expenses, including gasoline and vehicle maintenance. Drivers pay those costs themselves.</p>
<p>The settlement agreement keeps drivers as independent contractors.</p>
<p>In his order, Chhabria cautioned, "The agreement is not perfect. And the status of Lyft drivers under California law remains uncertain going forward."</p>
<p>Uber faces a similar class-action lawsuit from drivers in California and Massachusetts. A settlement offer in that case valued at up to $100 million was rejected last year by a<span> judge </span>who deemed it inadequate for drivers.</p>
<p>Lyft has more than 700,000 drivers nationally and Uber has more than 1.5 million globally. The profits and valuations of these companies would be severely affected if they had to reclassify drivers as employees.</p>
<p>Attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan, who represents the Lyft drivers, said on Thursday she was "very pleased to be at the end of this process." The lawsuit was filed in 2013.</p>
<p>A Lyft spokeswoman said the settlement agreement "will preserve the flexibility of drivers to choose when, where and for how long they drive with Lyft."</p>
<p>The company has said that driver surveys show that more than 80 percent of Lyft drivers prefer being independent contractors because of the flexibility that status allows.</p>
<p>The settlement provides thousands of dollars to Lyft drivers who logged the most miles, although infrequent drivers will see a nominal amount of cash. As part of the agreement, drivers also get benefits such as more protections from getting kicked off the app.</p>
<p>"The question of whether the drivers are appropriately classified as employees or independent contractors will just have to wait for another day," Liss-Riordan said.</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/report-lyft-is-trying-to-raise-500-million-in-its-fight-against-uber-2017-3" >Lyft is trying to raise $500 million in its fight against Uber</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/judge-approves-27-million-driver-settlement-in-lyft-lawsuit-2017-3#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/asia-earth-ice-melted-rising-ocean-coastline-china-india-2015-3">Animated map shows what would happen to Asia if all the Earth's ice melted</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/a-31-year-old-lawyer-just-became-the-uks-youngest-ever-female-judge-2017-3A 31-year-old lawyer just became the UK's youngest ever female judgehttp://www.businessinsider.com/a-31-year-old-lawyer-just-became-the-uks-youngest-ever-female-judge-2017-3
Fri, 10 Mar 2017 04:10:00 -0500Peter Walker
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/58c26d9edd08956d488b4d03-1368/undefined" alt="briony clarke facebook young lawyer" data-mce-source="Facebook" data-mce-caption="Briony Clarke still has 39 years as a judge before she hits retirement age"></p><p>A solicitor who joined her local law firm as a 15-year-old work experience intern has become the youngest ever female judge.</p>
<p>Briony Clarke was sworn in as a deputy district judge&nbsp;after 16 years at Essex firm Taylor Haldane Barlex LLP (THB).</p>
<p>The 31-year-old took her judicial oaths this week, the day before International Women’s Day, in front of Chelmsford Crown Court resident judge Charles Gratwicke.</p>
<p>“It’s nice to have someone from our own community, embarking on the same career that we have all, at some stage, had to launch ourselves into,” said Mr Gratwicke.</p>
<p>Ms Clarke will not hit compulsory retirement age until January 2056.</p>
<p>“It’s a long time,” he said. “It just goes to show how young you are and how long a career you have.</p>
<p>“Many congratulations. Enjoy it.”</p>
<p>Richard Wright QC became the youngest ever judge when he was also made a deputy district judge at 29 in 2006.</p>
<p>Ms Clarke was admitted to the Roll of Solicitors in 2009, became an accredited duty solicitor in 2010, a THB associate in 2013, and a partner in 2014.</p>
<p>She will continue her practice as normal but will sit part-time as a judge in magistrates’ courts.</p>
<p>A THB spokesman said: “We believe she is the youngest female applicant to have been successful.</p>
<p>“It is without doubt an extraordinary personal achievement and the partnership are absolutely delighted for her.”</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/a-31-year-old-lawyer-just-became-the-uks-youngest-ever-female-judge-2017-3#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-how-us-could-prevent-nuclear-strike-north-korea-cyber-attack-hacking-2017-4">How the US could prevent a North Korean nuclear strike — according to a former Marine and cyberwarfare expert</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/r-us-judge-rules-against-tribes-seeking-to-stop-dakota-pipeline-2017-3Judge rules against tribes trying to stop Dakota Access pipelinehttp://www.businessinsider.com/r-us-judge-rules-against-tribes-seeking-to-stop-dakota-pipeline-2017-3
Tue, 07 Mar 2017 12:31:00 -0500
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/58bee7745124c985250b10ac-450-300/us-judge-rules-against-tribes-seeking-to-stop-dakota-pipeline-2017-3.jpg" alt="Authorities clear the Oceti Sakowin camp in Cannon Ball, North Dakota, U.S., February 24, 2017. REUTERS/Stephen Yang" border="0"></p><p></p>
<p>March 7 (Reuters) - A US judge on Tuesday ruled against native tribes seeking to stop the<span>&nbsp;Dakota&nbsp;</span>Access Pipeline from moving forward on the basis that it would prevent them from practicing religious ceremonies, as legal options for opponents of the project narrow.</p>
<p>Judge James Boasberg of the US District Court for the District of Columbia, in a written ruling, rejected the Cheyenne River Sioux's request for an injunction to withdraw permission issued by the Army Corps for the last link of the oil pipeline under Lake Oahe in North<span>&nbsp;Dakota</span>.</p>
<p>Energy Transfer Partners LP is building the $3.8 billion<span>&nbsp;Dakota&nbsp;</span>Access Pipeline to move crude from the Northern Plains to the Midwest and then on to the Gulf of Mexico.</p>
<p>The denial of the injunction represents yet another setback to the Native American tribes – the Standing Rock Sioux and the Cheyenne River Sioux – that have been leading the charge against the line, which runs adjacent to tribal territory in southern North<span>&nbsp;Dakota</span>.</p>
<p>The Cheyenne River Sioux had argued that the pipeline would render water it uses for religious ceremonies spiritually impure even if the pipeline goes under the lake.</p>
<p>The tribes won a reprieve from the Democratic Obama administration in early December, but the victory was short-lived as Republican President Donald Trump signed an executive order days after taking office on Jan. 20 that smoothed the path for the last permit needed.</p>
<p>The company needed only to cross beneath Lake Oahe, part of the Missouri River system, to connect a final 1,100-foot gap in the 1,170-mile pipeline, which will move oil from the Bakken shale formation to a terminus in Illinois.</p>
<p>Energy Transfer Partners said in a filing late Monday that it plans to start pumping oil through a section of the line under the Missouri River by the week of March 13.</p>
<p>Public opposition drew thousands of people to the North<span>&nbsp;Dakota&nbsp;</span>plains last year, including high-profile political and celebrity supporters, along with veterans’ groups upset by the use of force by law enforcement.</p>
<p>After the legal victory in December, Standing Rock Sioux chairman Dave Archambault II asked protesters to leave; the primary protest camp on federal land was evacuated by mid-February, though substantial cleanup remains. The last protesters burned structures as they left the camp.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Timothy Gardner and David Gaffen; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/keystone-pipeline-us-steel-trump-2017-3" >The Keystone pipeline won't use US steel despite Trump's pledge</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-us-judge-rules-against-tribes-seeking-to-stop-dakota-pipeline-2017-3#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/hurricane-irma-latest-update-projected-path-track-florida-2017-9">Hurricane Irma is hammering Florida and headed to Georgia — here are the latest updates on the massive storm</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/judge-pruitt-emails-epa-trump-2017-2Judge orders Trump's EPA pick to turn over more than 3,000 emails with fossil fuel companies the night before his confirmationhttp://www.businessinsider.com/judge-pruitt-emails-epa-trump-2017-2
Thu, 16 Feb 2017 17:36:30 -0500Rafi Letzter
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/587f8d1bf10a9a22008b8c53-1016" alt="Scott Pruitt" data-mce-source="C-SPAN"></p><p>Scott Pruitt, President Donald Trump's pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Attorney General of Oklahoma, has spent two years avoiding requests to release more than 3,000 emails between his office and fossil fuel companies.</p>
<p>On Thursday, one day before the Senate is due to vote on Pruitt's confirmation, an Oklahoma judge ordered their release. </p>
<p>Pruitt's office now has to turn the emails over to the plaintiffs in a lawsuit or to the court, thanks to Judge Aletia Haynes Timmons' ruling. The office has until Tuesday to comply. At that point, barring any surprise votes or changes in Senate schedule, Pruitt will likely have already been confirmed as EPA administrator.</p>
<p>Here's how things got to this point:</p>
<p>More than a dozen "open records requests" seeking the emails had been filed in Oklahoma, dating back to January 2015, but Pruitt and his office did not respond to them.</p>
<p>A lawsuit filed February 7, 2017 by The Center for Media and Democracy, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, sought to force Pruitt to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-watchdog-group-sues-trump-epa-pick-to-disclose-contact-with-energy-companies-2017-2">release the emails</a>, alleging that withholding them violated state law. On Thursday, the judge sided with the plaintiffs.</p>
<p>Critics see Pruitt, a longtime opponent of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-epa-pick-scott-pruitt-2017-1">environmental efforts at the EPA</a>, as an <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/pruitt-reportedly-made-false-statements-senate-booker-2017-2">ally of polluting industries</a>.</p>
<p>Those alleged alliances have been at the center of a contentious confirmation debate in the Senate, which is <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-nearly-800-former-epa-officials-oppose-trump-pick-for-agency-2017-2">expected to vote on his confirmation tomorrow</a>.</p>
<p>Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic Senator from Massachussets, criticized her Republican colleagues on Twitter for moving forward on the confirmation vote before the emails' release:</p>
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A few hours ago, a judge in OK ordered the release of thousands of emails on <a href="https://twitter.com/EPA">@EPA</a> nominee Scott Pruitt's relationship with Big Oil. </p>— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/832378200151977985">February 16, 2017</a>
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Those emails might show corruption - so of course Republicans are jamming his confirmation through 4 days before the emails become public. </p>— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/832378532269547522">February 16, 2017</a>
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In the choice between corporate polluters &amp; people who want to breathe the air &amp; drink the water, Scott Pruitt sides with the polluters. </p>— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/832381110839603200">February 17, 2017</a>
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<p> </p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-nearly-800-former-epa-officials-oppose-trump-pick-for-agency-2017-2" >Nearly 800 former EPA officials oppose Trump's EPA pick, who just moved one step closer to confirmation</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/judge-pruitt-emails-epa-trump-2017-2#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/arctic-sea-ice-thinner-past-26-years-foreboding-animation-noaa-video-2016-12">This startling animation shows how much Arctic sea ice has thinned in just 26 years</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/judge-blocks-law-limiting-incoming-democratic-north-carolina-governors-power-2016-12Judge blocks North Carolina law meant to limit incoming Democratic governor's powerhttp://www.businessinsider.com/judge-blocks-law-limiting-incoming-democratic-north-carolina-governors-power-2016-12
Fri, 30 Dec 2016 21:42:31 -0500Colleen Jenkins
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/58671838f10a9a22008b606f-2400/undefined" alt="Roy Cooper" data-mce-source="Jonathan Drake/Reuters" data-mce-caption="Roy Cooper" data-link="http://pictures.reuters.com/archive/USA-ELECTION-NORTH-CAROLINA-TM3ECC61N3E01.html" /></p><p>A North Carolina judge on Friday temporarily blocked a state law hours after incoming Democratic Governor Roy Cooper sued to void Republican-backed legislation lessening his control over state and county elections boards, local media reported.</p>
<p>Cooper's transition team described the measure, which would have abolished the current state elections board on Sunday, when he will be sworn in during a private ceremony, as "unconstitutional legislative overreach."</p>
<p>The law, enacted by the state's Republican-dominated legislature during a special session this month, calls for the governor and legislature to appoint four members each to a new board evenly split between Republicans and Democrats. Previously, governors appointed a majority of members.</p>
<p>The measure also replaces three-member county elections boards, where the sitting governor's party had the majority, with four-member boards made up of two Republicans and two Democrats each.</p>
<p>A temporary restraining order issued by a Wake County Superior Court judge will stop the law from taking effect on Sunday, WRAL.com reported.</p>
<p><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/586717b5f10a9a24008b60ea-2400/undefined" alt="Roy Cooper" data-mce-source="Jonathan Drake/Reuters" data-mce-caption="Roy Cooper" data-link="http://pictures.reuters.com/archive/USA-ELECTION-NORTH-CAROLINA-TM3ECC61NX401.html" /></p>
<p>Cooper's lawsuit argues that the changes violate the state constitution's separation of powers requirements by shifting control from the executive agency responsible for administering election laws to legislators, according to media reports.</p>
<p>The law was among a series of measures approved during a special session in mid-December to curtail Cooper's executive authority before he succeeds outgoing Republican Governor Pat McCrory.</p>
<p>"This complex new law passed in just two days by the Republican legislature is unconstitutional and anything but bipartisan," Cooper said in a statement. "A tie on a partisan vote would accomplish what many Republicans want: making it harder for North Carolinians to vote."</p>
<p>McCrory, who trailed Cooper by about 10,000 votes when he conceded the race nearly four weeks after the Nov. 8 election, and other Republican leaders have argued the new elections law would help ensure a fair voting process.</p>
<p>Senate leader Phil Berger on Friday criticized Cooper's legal action.</p>
<p>"Roy Cooper&rsquo;s effort to stop the creation of a bipartisan board with an equal number of Democrats and Republicans to enforce elections and ethics laws may serve his desire to preserve his own political power, but it does not serve the best interests of our state," Berger said in a statement.</p>
<p>(Editing by Steve Orlofsky)</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/north-carolina-republicans-special-session-2016-12" >A 'shameful and cowardly power grab' by Republicans is making Democrats in North Carolina furious</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/judge-blocks-law-limiting-incoming-democratic-north-carolina-governors-power-2016-12#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-happens-two-hurricanes-collide-fujiwhara-effect-2017-9">Here's what happens when two hurricanes collide</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-louisiana-governors-lgbt-rights-order-thrown-out-by-judge-2016-12Louisiana judge throws out governor's executive order to protect LGBT rightshttp://www.businessinsider.com/ap-louisiana-governors-lgbt-rights-order-thrown-out-by-judge-2016-12
Wed, 14 Dec 2016 16:00:00 -0500Melinda Deslatte
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/5851b148a1a45e8b3f8b4f56-2000" alt="louisiana governor john bel edwards" data-mce-source="Associated Press/Molly Riley" data-mce-caption="In this Sept. 9, 2016 file photo, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards testifies in on Capitol Hill in Washington." /></p><p>BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) &mdash; A judge has thrown out an executive order issued by Louisiana's governor that was aimed at protecting the rights of LGBT people in state government.</p>
<p>Judge Todd Hernandez ruled Wednesday that Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards' anti-discrimination order is unconstitutional. The order prohibited discrimination in government and state contracts based on sexual orientation and gender identity.</p>
<p>The decision delivered a significant victory to Republican Attorney General Jeff Landry, who filed the lawsuit challenging the LGBT-rights order.</p>
<p>Edwards said his order, with an exception for contractors that are religious organizations, is a statement that Louisiana doesn't discriminate. Landry said it tries to establish a new protected class of people that doesn't exist in law and that lawmakers refused to add.</p>
<p>Landry has blocked dozens of legal services contracts that contain the anti-discrimination language.</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/outstandings-2015-leading-lgbt-executives-list-most-powerful-executives-in-the-world-2016-10" >The 17 most powerful LGBT+ executives in the world</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-louisiana-governors-lgbt-rights-order-thrown-out-by-judge-2016-12#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-how-us-could-prevent-nuclear-strike-north-korea-cyber-attack-hacking-2017-4">How the US could prevent a North Korean nuclear strike — according to a former Marine and cyberwarfare expert</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/fbi-search-warrant-application-hillary-clinton-emails-2016-12Judge wants to see the search warrant application that led to review of Hillary Clinton's emails days before the electionhttp://www.businessinsider.com/fbi-search-warrant-application-hillary-clinton-emails-2016-12
Tue, 13 Dec 2016 17:59:38 -0500Nate Raymond
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/585078bfa1a45e1b008b5a49-2400/2016-12-13t222538z1lynxmpecbc1c3rtroptp4usa-clinton.jpg" alt="Hillary Clinton" data-mce-source="Joshua Roberts/Reuters" data-mce-caption="Hillary Clinton" data-link="http://mediaexpress.reuters.com/all?id=tag%3Areuters.com%2C2016%3Anewsml_KBN1422SR%3A1" /></p><p>A U.S. judge on Tuesday directed federal prosecutors to show him the search warrant application used to enable the FBI to access emails related to Hillary Clinton's private server that were discovered shortly before the Nov. 8 presidential election.</p>
<p>U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel in Manhattan ordered prosecutors by Thursday to turn over the application, which investigators obtained shortly after FBI Director James Comey informed Congress of newly discovered emails on Oct. 28, 11 days before the election won by her Republican opponent Donald Trump.</p>
<p>Castel made the order as he considered whether any portion of the search warrant materials could be made public in response to a lawsuit filed by Randol Schoenberg, a Los Angeles-based lawyer who specializes in cases to recover artwork stolen by the Nazis, seeking to force the release of the documents.</p>
<p>In court papers, Schoenberg said the public had a "strong interest" in the disclosure of the search warrant materials, saying transparency was "crucial" given the potential influence the probe had on the election's outcome.</p>
<p>The search warrant was obtained after Comey issued a letter to top U.S. lawmakers disclosing that emails potentially related to the Clinton server probe had been discovered in an "unrelated case." Comey's Oct. 28 announcement roiled the campaign and drew new attention to a damaging issue for Clinton.</p>
<p>Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, used the server while she was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013. Comey in July had recommended to the Justice Department that no criminal charges be brought against Clinton over her handing of classified information in the emails.</p>
<p>&nbsp;<img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/5820f02246e27a28008b53bd-2400/gettyimages-610924744.jpg" alt="James Comey" data-mce-source="Win McNamee" data-mce-caption="F.B.I. Director James Comey testifies before the House Judiciary Committee September 28, 2016 in Washington, DC. Comey testified on a variety of subjects including the investigation into former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's email server." /></p>
<p>Only two days before the election, Comey disclosed that the newly reviewed emails did nothing to change his earlier recommendation after all.</p>
<p>Clinton days after her loss blamed Comey's letter, so close to the election, as a reason she lost to Trump.</p>
<p>Sources close to the investigation have said the emails were discovered during an unrelated probe into former Democratic U.S. congressman Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin.</p>
<p>In court, Castel said he would not be surprised if prosecutors, in submitting the materials to him, cited the presence of an ongoing probe in a case unrelated to Clinton as a reason to keep the search warrant application confidential.</p>
<p>"It could be potentially terribly unfair to a person who ultimately winds up not being charged," Castel said, apparently referring to Weiner.</p>
<p>Castel said it was possible information unrelated to the Clinton email probe could be redacted, and noted that in Clinton's case, Comey later indicated in a subsequent letter that the server probe was closed.</p>
<p>Castel invited prosecutors to propose redactions in case he decides to release the search warrant application.&nbsp;</p>
<p>(Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; Editing by Will Dunham)</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/fbi-search-warrant-application-hillary-clinton-emails-2016-12#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-how-us-could-prevent-nuclear-strike-north-korea-cyber-attack-hacking-2017-4">How the US could prevent a North Korean nuclear strike — according to a former Marine and cyberwarfare expert</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/judges-decide-death-sentence-in-alabama-2016-12In Alabama, you can be sentenced to death even if jurors don't agreehttp://www.businessinsider.com/judges-decide-death-sentence-in-alabama-2016-12
Wed, 07 Dec 2016 19:21:00 -0500Kent Faulk
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/560081269dd7cc17008bc004-2400/ap080527055794.jpg" alt="lethal injection bed" data-mce-source="AP/Pat Sullivan" /></p><p>Ronald Bert Smith walked into a Huntsville, Ala., convenience store with a Colt .45 semi-automatic pistol on Nov. 8, 1994, and shot clerk Casey Wilson to death during a robbery captured on video.</p>
<p>A jury in August 1995 unanimously convicted Smith of capital murder. Then the jurors, in a 7-5 vote, recommended that the judge sentence Smith to life without parole instead of death.</p>
<p>So why, 21 years later, is Smith, now 45, set to be strapped down to a gurney and <a href="https://www.themarshallproject.org/next-to-die/al">executed by lethal injection on Thursday</a>?</p>
<p>The answer lies in Alabama&rsquo;s death-penalty law, the only one of its kind in the country.</p>
<p>Thirty-one states have the death penalty, and 30 of them require unanimity from a jury in crucial phases of sentencing. Not in Alabama, where a jury can impose a death sentence with a vote of at least 10 to 2. The jury may also recommend life imprisonment, as it did in Smith&rsquo;s case, but the judge can overrule jurors&rsquo; findings no matter what they decide.</p>
<p>Until recently, two other states kept Alabama company &mdash; Delaware and Florida. But each has now revised its code in light of state and federal court rulings, leaving Alabama isolated.</p>
<p>And while the Alabama Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of the death-penalty statute as recently as September, the defense bar as well as experts on capital punishment are seeing increasing pressure on Alabama to make jury unanimity the law and do away with judicial override.</p>
<p>With indecisive juries, and judges free to go their own way, the likelihood of injustice grows, legal experts say. In fact, jurors who vote against the death penalty may harbor doubts about the guilty verdict they imposed earlier, said the authors of <a href="http://www.yalelawjournal.org/forum/innocence-and-override">a recent article in The Yale Law Journal</a>. &ldquo;We know of at least three cases in Alabama where an innocent (later exonerated) person was convicted of capital murder and the judge overrode the jury&rsquo;s recommendations for life,&rdquo; said Patrick Mulvaney, who with Catherine Chamblee, of the Southern Center for Human Rights, wrote the article. &ldquo;We think that override is really a problem.&rdquo; Mulvaney also warned that politics can play a role &mdash; especially in tough-on-crime states like Alabama, which elects its judges.</p>
<p>Of the 57 executions in Alabama since the death penalty was reinstated in 1983, 29 involved non-unanimous jury votes, ranging from 11 to 1 for death to 11 to 1 for life, according to an AL.com, Marshall Project review of each case.</p>
<p><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/584879ffba6eb637008b8007-1693/undefined" alt="Alabama prison" data-mce-source="AP Photo/Dave Martin" data-mce-caption="Overcrowding in Elmore Correction Facility in Alabama, circa February 2004" data-link="http://www.apimages.com/OneUp.aspx?ish=1&amp;rids=bf58b43ae5e6da11af9f0014c2589dfb&amp;dbm=&amp;page=1&amp;xslt=1&amp;mediatype=Photo%20%20%20%20%20%20%20&amp;hp=t" /></p>
<p>Death-penalty sentencing schemes vary widely around the United States, but all &mdash; except Alabama&rsquo;s &mdash; lean toward the jury&rsquo;s having the final say in sentencing, said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.</p>
<p>In Montana and Nebraska, for example, juries don&rsquo;t make sentencing recommendations, he said. Instead, they are required to issue a unanimous fact-finding verdict that at least one aggravating circumstance exists in order for the death penalty to be applied in the case. The judge determines the actual sentence.</p>
<p>In Indiana, which changed its statute in 2002, if there is a unanimous verdict for a sentence, then the judge cannot disregard it. If the jury can&rsquo;t make a unanimous recommendation, then it is treated as if there was no recommendation and it&rsquo;s up to the judge.</p>
<p>Most other states have jury sentencing in capital cases, and those verdicts must be unanimous for the death penalty, Dunham said. There are also states where a judge can override a jury-imposed death sentence in favor of life without the possibility of parole, which is &ldquo;a safeguard against runaway juries,&rdquo; he said.</p>
<p>Alabama judges can also override a unanimous jury recommendation for death, but that has rarely happened. Alabama judges were the only ones to exercise their override authority to impose death over the past 16 years.</p>
<p>Until this year, Delaware and Florida permitted juries to issue non-unanimous verdicts for the death penalty and also allowed judges to override jurors&rsquo; recommendations. But in January, a United States Supreme Court decision in a murder case, Hurst v. Florida, compelled both states to change their procedures.</p>
<p>In Hurst, the High Court found that Florida&rsquo;s law failed to give juries enough influence in deciding whether to sentence a defendant to death. The jury had voted 7 to 5 for the death penalty. The judge then reviewed the facts of the case separately and concurred. But the High Court rejected that approach.</p>
<p>Writing for an 8 to 1 majority, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, said &ldquo;The Sixth Amendment requires a jury, not a judge, to find each fact to impose a sentence of death. A jury&rsquo;s mere recommendation is not enough.&rdquo; The Hurst decision grew out of the High Court&rsquo;s prior ruling in Ring v. Arizona (2002), holding that juries &mdash; not judges &mdash; must find the facts necessary for a case to be death-penalty eligible.</p>
<p><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/58487a63ba6eb6771b8b7d9a-1471/ap070927056492.jpg" alt="Alabama's lethal injection chamber" data-mce-source="AP Photo" data-mce-caption="Alabama's lethal injection chamber" /></p>
<p>As a result, in August, the Delaware Supreme Court struck the state&rsquo;s death penalty law, saying that a jury &mdash; not a judge &mdash; must decide the sentence and that it must be unanimous on the part of jurors.</p>
<p>Then, in October, Florida&rsquo;s top court ruled that juries must be unanimous in their recommendations for death.</p>
<p>So far, however, legal authorities in Alabama have rejected Hurst as a blueprint for change.</p>
<p>Although defense lawyers around the state have filed a flood of petitions seeking to stave off possible death sentences in the wake of the Hurst decision, prosecutors and Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange have repeatedly argued that Alabama's law was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1995 and is not the same as the portion of the Florida law struck down in Hurst.</p>
<p>Florida&rsquo;s law had required the judge &mdash; not the jury &mdash; to find the existence of an aggravating circumstance in order for the defendant to be subject to the death penalty.</p>
<p>"In the Florida case, the holding is that a jury must find the aggravating factor in order to make someone eligible for the death penalty,&rdquo; the Alabama attorney general has stated. &ldquo;Alabama's system already requires the jury to do just that.&rdquo;</p>
<p>In capital murder cases with the death penalty in Alabama, the jury must find an aggravating factor &mdash; murder during the commission of a robbery, kidnapping or rape, for example. Therefore, at the time of conviction, the jury has already agreed upon at least one aggravating factor that would make the defendant eligible for a death sentence, according to the Alabama Supreme Court.</p>
<p>Dunham asserts that Alabama prosecutors are relying on a very narrow difference between Alabama&rsquo;s death-sentencing scheme and the one that was in place in Florida in the Hurst case. &ldquo;If a judge considers aggravating facts that the jury does not find and weighs them that would be a violation of Hurst,&rdquo; he said.</p>
<p>&ldquo;The judge in Alabama is free to disregard a jury&rsquo;s recommendation of life &hellip; I don&rsquo;t think that you need better proof than that that it is independent fact-finding by the judge,&rdquo; Dunham said.</p>
<p><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/572d0c6452bcd0320c8c173d-2400/rtr1laqq.jpg" alt="supreme court death penalty" data-mce-source="Reuters/Jason Reed" data-mce-caption="Protesters calling for an end to the death penalty unfurl a banner before police arrest them outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington Jan. 17, 2007." /></p>
<p>Defense lawyers also have repeatedly argued that the Hurst ruling means juries must have the final say in what sentence &mdash; life or death &mdash; a capital murder defendant gets. And in that regard, they say, Alabama law falls short.</p>
<p>"I think we are finding that one individual [a judge] should not be the final voice on whether someone should live or die. That should be a decision for 12 people," said Emory Anthony, a Birmingham lawyer who has filed motions for several defendants seeking to have their capital murder charges dismissed in light of the Hurst decision. If dismissed, prosecutors could seek murder charges that wouldn&rsquo;t allow for the death penalty.</p>
<p>Although the future of Alabama&rsquo;s sentencing law is unclear, there are signs that the U.S. Supreme Court is keeping watch. This spring, the High Court sent back the cases of three death row inmates and asked the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals to review them in light of the Hurst decision. The high court didn't say in its brief orders what it was about each of those cases that the appellate court should consider because in each case the judges followed jurors' recommendations for death. One recommendation was unanimous and the other two split decisions, with one or two jurors voting against death.</p>
<p>The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals hasn&rsquo;t yet acted on that request. But in a ruling in June it ordered a state circuit judge to vacate her March 3 ruling that declared the state's capital punishment sentencing scheme unconstitutional in light of Hurst.</p>
<p>"Alabama is out on the limb and the U.S. Supreme Court has already suggested it might be pulling out the saw," Dunham recently told <a href="http://al.com/">AL.com</a>.</p>
<p>For Ronald Bert Smith, any attempts to repeal or refine Alabama&rsquo;s sentencing law will come too late. The jury&rsquo;s split decision for life in prison and the judge&rsquo;s sentence of death remain unchanged.</p>
<p>One of his defense lawyers at the trial, Jackie Graham, said recently, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure I was surprised since the jury had voted for life and due to the fact he was a young guy. He had a young child.&rdquo; Smith&rsquo;s two accomplices got lesser sentences.</p>
<p>Graham, who defended clients in three capital murder trials, says she isn&rsquo;t against the death penalty. But she believes the jury should have the say in both the verdict and sentence. &ldquo;I honestly think the jury should make the decision,&rdquo; Graham said. &ldquo;If they are going to make a recommendation, then why shouldn&rsquo;t that recommendation be binding?&rdquo;</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/judges-decide-death-sentence-in-alabama-2016-12#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-how-us-could-prevent-nuclear-strike-north-korea-cyber-attack-hacking-2017-4">How the US could prevent a North Korean nuclear strike — according to a former Marine and cyberwarfare expert</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/judges-comment-in-a-sexual-assault-case-could-get-him-kicked-off-the-bench-2016-12A male judge's comment to a woman in a sexual assault case could get him kicked off the benchhttp://www.businessinsider.com/judges-comment-in-a-sexual-assault-case-could-get-him-kicked-off-the-bench-2016-12
Thu, 01 Dec 2016 20:51:00 -0500Tamara Khandaker
<p><span><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/584093a0ba6eb606688b6190-1368/undefined" alt="Robin Camp" data-mce-source="Andrew Balfour/Federal Court of Canada" data-mce-caption="Robin Camp">A judge who asked a woman why she didn’t just “keep your knees together” while presiding over a sexual assault trial should be removed from the bench, according to a unanimous ruling from an inquiry committee formed by the Canadian Judicial Council.</span></p>
<p><span>Justice Robin Camp of the Federal Court of Appeal “made comments or asked questions evidencing an antipathy towards laws designed to protect vulnerable witnesses, promote equality, and bring integrity to sexual assault trials,” said the committee’s report, released Wednesday’s morning.</span></p>
<p><span>The committee also found Camp “relied on discredited myths and stereotypes about women and victim-blaming during the trial and in his Reasons for Judgement.”</span></p>
<p><span>The decision doesn’t mean that Camp will be removed yet, however. The committee’s report will be taken into consideration by the larger judicial council, who will recommend a course of action to the federal government.</span></p>
<p><span>While presiding over the trial of Alexander Wager two years ago in Alberta, Camp, then a provincial judge, asked the complainant, who said she was assaulted in a bathroom, why she “didn’t… just sink [her] bottom into the basin so he couldn’t penetrate [her],” “why couldn’t [she] just keep [her] knees together” and suggested that she could’ve avoided him if she “skew[ed] her pelvis slightly.”</span></p>
<p><span>During a public hearing conducted by the council in October, Camp said his comment suggesting that the complainant keep her knees together was “unforgivable.”</span></p>
<p><span><div>
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Conduct of Justice Camp in rape case erodes confidence in justice system, report says <a href="https://t.co/zQxitaSOan">https://t.co/zQxitaSOan</a> <a href="https://t.co/lDGoN9XWPg">pic.twitter.com/lDGoN9XWPg</a> </p>— CBC News (@CBCNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/804324428800729089">December 1, 2016</a>
</blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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<p><span>In a letter to the inquiry, his daughter Lauren Camp, wrote that while he is “old-fashioned in some ways” and “there are gaps in his understanding of how women think and experience life,” he is not an “inherent or dedicated sexist.</span></p>
<p><span>“I have seen him advance in understanding and empathy for victims, vulnerable litigants and those who have experienced trauma,” she wrote, adding that her father isn’t the “insensitive, sexist brute caricatured in the media.”</span></p>
<p><span>But the committee, while acknowledging his “significant efforts to reform his thinking and the attitudes,” said his education “cannot adequately repair the damage caused to public confidence through his conduct of the Wagar Trial.”</span></p>
<p><span>That damage warranted his removal, the committee decided.</span></p>
<p><span>“We conclude that Justice Camp’s conduct in the Wagar Trial was so manifestly and profoundly destructive of the concept of the impartiality, integrity and independence of the judicial role that public confidence is sufficiently undermined to render the Judge incapable of executing the judicial office,” the ruling said.</span></p>
<p><span>The full council, made up of chief and associate chief justices from across the country, will now give Camp a chance to make written submissions before deciding on a formal recommendation to make to the federal justice minister. If they recommend his removal, and the justice minister signs off, Parliament will need to approve his firing.</span></p>
<p><span>Since it was formed in 1971, the council has only recommended the removal of two judges, both of whom stepped down before the question was brought to a vote in the House of Commons and the Senate.</span></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/judges-comment-in-a-sexual-assault-case-could-get-him-kicked-off-the-bench-2016-12#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-you-missed-season-7-episode-7-finale-game-of-thrones-jon-snow-night-king-dragons-2017-8">6 details you might have missed on the season 7 finale of 'Game of Thrones'</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/us-judge-rejects-nyc-police-settlement-over-muslim-surveillance-2016-11Federal judge rejects settlement of lawsuits charging that the NYPD illegally targeted Muslims for surveillancehttp://www.businessinsider.com/us-judge-rejects-nyc-police-settlement-over-muslim-surveillance-2016-11
Tue, 01 Nov 2016 10:31:35 -0400Nate Raymond
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/57bdb1d5ce38f2db088b88ee-2400/ap16236856806760.jpg" alt="nypd surveillance muslims" data-mce-source="Associated Press/Seth Wenig" data-mce-caption="In this Aug. 28, 2013 file photo, people hold signs while attending a rally to protest New York Police Department surveillance tactics near police headquarters in New York." /></p><p>A federal judge has rejected a settlement of lawsuits charging that the New York City police department illegally targeted Muslims for surveillance, saying the deal did not go far enough and provide sufficient protections.</p>
<p>U.S. District Judge Charles Haight in Manhattan in a ruling made public on Monday rejected the deal announced in January in which the New York Police Department would install a civilian representative to help monitor its counterterrorism efforts.</p>
<p>Haight said the civilian representative's proposed powers "do not furnish sufficient protection from potential violations of the constitutional rights for Muslims and believers in Islam who live, move and have their being in the city."</p>
<p>He cited an inspector general's report as indicating the department has a "systemic inclination" to disregard court-approved regulations, called the Handschu guidelines, that limit how it can monitor political and religious activity.</p>
<p>Haight suggested a series of alterations, including clarifying the authority of the civilian representative to ensure the NYPD's compliance with the Handschu guidelines and requiring that the representative report periodically to the court.</p>
<p>The New York Civil Liberties Union, which represented the plaintiffs, said in a statement the ruling highlighted safeguards they sought but that the department declined to accept.</p>
<p>"This development is an opportunity to put the strongest safeguards in place, and we are eager to discuss the court&rsquo;s suggestions with the NYPD and the city," the group said.</p>
<p><img src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/56f11ba39105844d018b7efe-827/screen shot 2016-03-22 at 6.11.36 am.png" alt="nypd counterterrrorism unit" data-mce-source="Reuters" /></p>
<p>New York City law department spokesman Nick Paolucci said in a statement the city was disappointed to some extent that the judge did not approve the settlement.</p>
<p>"That said, we will explore ways to address the concerns raised by the judge," Paolucci added.</p>
<p>Following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the New York Police Department pursued an aggressive surveillance program that sent undercover officers into Muslim neighborhoods, organizations and mosques.</p>
<p>The tactics, which became widely known after a series of reports by the Associated Press, were criticized by civil rights advocates as unconstitutional.</p>
<p>Mayor Bill de Blasio, who campaigned in part on reining in police excesses, ended the program soon after taking office in 2014.</p>
<p>The proposed settlement required modifications to the Handschu guidelines, which were loosened after the Sept. 11 attacks, and called for at least a five-year term for the civilian representative.</p>
<p>(Additional reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Editing by Steve Orlofsky and Andrew Hay)</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/police-using-facial-recognition-databases-with-almost-no-oversight-2016-10" >Half of American adults appear in facial recognition databases — and police are using them with almost no oversight</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/us-judge-rejects-nyc-police-settlement-over-muslim-surveillance-2016-11#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/major-changes-apple-ios-iphone-11-2017-6">Here are all the major changes coming to your iPhone September 19</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/judge-signs-summons-against-gov-christie-over-lane-closures-2016-10Chris Christie is facing an official misconduct complaint over 'Bridgegate'http://www.businessinsider.com/judge-signs-summons-against-gov-christie-over-lane-closures-2016-10
Thu, 13 Oct 2016 11:32:00 -0400
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/57ff9eefda177dd72c8b45a4-2400/ap16286745884711.jpg" alt="chris christie" data-mce-source="Associated Press/Mel Evans" data-mce-caption="New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie climbs into an SUV as he leaves a Hispanic Heritage Month event at the New Jersey State Museum Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2016, in Trenton, N.J." /></p><p></p>
<p>HACKENSACK, N.J. (AP) &mdash; New Jersey Gov. Chris&nbsp;<span>Christie</span>&nbsp;faces an official misconduct complaint stemming from the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-we-know-about-bridgegate-2016-9">closure of lanes leading to the George Washington Bridge</a>.</p>
<p>A judge signed the summons Thursday, sending the case to the Bergen County prosecutor's office, which will decide whether the case will lead to an indictment.</p>
<p>The Republican governor appointed the prosecutor.</p>
<p>Municipal Court administrative specialist Jessica Lemley says a complaint of official misconduct would mean&nbsp;<span>Christie</span>&nbsp;is accused of knowingly refraining from performing a duty imposed on him by law or clearly inherent in the nature of his office.</p>
<p>Official misconduct carries a possible sentence of five to 10 years.</p>
<p>Christie's&nbsp;spokesman says the ruling is being appealed. He says that the governor had no knowledge of the plot and that case has already been "thoroughly investigated."</p>
<p><span>Christie</span>&nbsp;has said he did not know about the plot.</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-we-know-about-bridgegate-2016-9" >Prosecutors say Chris Christie knew about 'Bridgegate' — here's what we know about the scandal</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/judge-signs-summons-against-gov-christie-over-lane-closures-2016-10#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-how-us-could-prevent-nuclear-strike-north-korea-cyber-attack-hacking-2017-4">How the US could prevent a North Korean nuclear strike — according to a former Marine and cyberwarfare expert</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/connecticut-judge-orders-state-to-overhaul-education-system-2016-9A Connecticut judge ordered the state to overhaul its entire education system in 6 monthshttp://www.businessinsider.com/connecticut-judge-orders-state-to-overhaul-education-system-2016-9
Thu, 08 Sep 2016 10:26:20 -0400Dave Collins
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/57d174b809d29324008b69b5-2400/ap_16229762193644.jpg" alt="Connecticut school" data-mce-source="(AP Photo/Steven Senne)" data-mce-caption="Connecticut College digital scholarship librarian Lyndsay Bratton, left, and assistant professor in Gender and Women's studies Ariella Rotramel, right, use the visualization wall at the Charles E. Shain Library in New London, Conn., on Tuesday, May 3, 2016. The library underwent and exterior and interior renovation during the 2014-2015 academic year." /></p><p>HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- A judge on Wednesday ordered Connecticut officials to develop plans for a major overhaul of the state's public education system within six months, saying a huge gap in test scores between students in rich and poor towns shows parts of the system are unconstitutional and irrational.</p>
<p>Superior Court Judge Thomas Moukawsher in Hartford ordered the state to submit proposed reforms to the court to revamp its formula for distributing education aid to cities and towns, develop a statewide high school graduation standard such as a test, make eighth-graders show they have acquired the skills to move on to high school and replace what he called an irrational and weak statewide system of teacher evaluation and compensation.</p>
<p>Moukawsher spent nearly three hours reading his decision in a courtroom filled with local officials, parents and other interested onlookers.</p>
<p>"Beyond a reasonable doubt, Connecticut is defaulting on its constitutional duty to provide adequate public school opportunities because it has no rational, substantial and verifiable plan to distribute money for education aid and school construction," Moukawsher said.</p>
<p>The ruling came in an 11-year-old lawsuit filed against the state by the Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding, a nonprofit group that includes cities, towns, local boards of education, parent groups and public school students.</p>
<p>The coalition alleges the state isn't providing adequate education funding to cities and towns and isn't meeting its constitutional obligation to provide all students with adequate educations. It says vast differences in test results, graduation rates and other factors between rich and poor towns show the funding system isn't fair.</p>
<p>In recent standardized testing, more than 70 percent of students in the state's richest towns met third-grade reading goals, while nearly 70 percent of students in the least affluent towns did not. On high school tests, most children in the wealthiest towns scored advanced in math and nearly the same in reading, while one out of three students in poor districts didn't reach basic levels in math and did only modestly better at reading.</p>
<p>The state must submit its proposed reforms in 180 days.</p>
<p>It wasn't immediately clear if the state Attorney General's Office will appeal the ruling, possibly to the state Supreme Court. A spokesman for the office said state officials were reviewing the decision.</p>
<p>"This decision by Judge Moukawsher is a game changer for our children," Bridgeport Mayor Joseph P. Ganim said. "This ruling is a detailed, thorough indictment of how the state fails to provide an adequate education in Bridgeport and other poor school districts in Connecticut."</p>
<p>The judge said the state's Educational Cost Sharing formula, which was used for years to distribute education aid to municipalities, was never fully funded and was abandoned by the state in the 2013-2014 fiscal year. In its place, the state legislature has approved set dollar amounts for every town, a system he said lacked reason.</p>
<p>For example, Moukawsher said, the Democrat-controlled General Assembly and Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy changed the 2016-2017 budget earlier this year because of a budget deficit and reduced education aid to the state's poorest districts by more than $5 million. While officials also cut school aid significantly for some wealthy towns, they increased aid to comparatively wealthy towns by more than $5 million, the judge said.</p>
<p>Funding to Bridgeport schools, for example, was cut by more than $900,000 as the city's school district faced a $15 million gap to maintain current services, Moukawsher said. Bridgeport is having to lay off school staff, increase class size and cut school bus service to nearly all high school students. Meanwhile, towns such as West Hartford, Glastonbury, Branford and Shelton received hundreds of thousands of dollars in aid increases.</p>
<p>"An approach that allows rich towns to raid money desperately needed by poor towns makes a mockery of the state's constitutional duty to provide adequate educational opportunities to all students," the judge said.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/connecticut-judge-orders-state-to-overhaul-education-system-2016-9#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/star-wars-children-music-concert-lightsaber-elementary-school-quebec-canada-2016-6">A music teacher transformed violin bows into lightsabers for his class</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/r-judge-in-french-rivieras-nice-deals-further-blow-to-burkini-foes-2016-9Another judge in France has declared that the burkini ban is illegalhttp://www.businessinsider.com/r-judge-in-french-rivieras-nice-deals-further-blow-to-burkini-foes-2016-9
Fri, 02 Sep 2016 09:06:00 -0400Brian Love
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/57c5741c5124c942160f20f8-450-300/un-rights-office-urges-french-towns-to-repeal-burkini-bans-2016-8.jpg" alt="A woman wearing a burkini walks in the water August 27, 2016 on a beach in Marseille, France, the day after the country's highest administrative court suspended a ban on full-body burkini swimsuits that has outraged Muslims and opened divisions within the government, pending a definitive ruling. REUTERS/Stringer" border="0" /></p><p>PARIS (Reuters) - Attempts to ban burkini-clad women from the beaches of France's Riviera coast suffered a further setback when a judge in the city of Nice declared the prohibition of the body-hiding swimwear to be illegal there.</p>
<p>The verdict delivered on Thursday was the latest of several rulings against bans imposed by local authorities in dozens of southeastern beach resorts in the peak holiday month of August - bans that sparked intense controversy inside and outside France.</p>
<p>Nice, where 86 people died in an Islamic State militant attack in July, was one of some 30 towns in the largely right-wing part of the country to ban the burkini on the grounds that it presented a threat to public order.</p>
<p>The burkini, which is predominantly worn by Muslim women and covers all of the body bar face, hands and feet, has become a target at a time when identity politics is gaining traction following a string of deadly Islamist attacks in France.</p>
<p>The bans have exposed secular France's difficulties grappling with religious tolerance in the wake of the attacks.</p>
<p>Nice became a symbol of the burkini-ban controversy when local and foreign media relayed pictures of police ordering a woman lying on the beach to remove some of the clothing that covered most of her body.</p>
<p>The United Nations human rights office earlier this week called on French beach resorts to lift their bans on the burkini, calling them a "stupid reaction" that did not improve security but rather fueled religious intolerance.</p>
<p>While the controversy may wane with the end of the summer vacation period, the burkini furor highlighted the tensions set to dominate ahead of elections next May.</p>
<p>While traditionally Catholic but also home to large Jewish and Muslim communities, France has made the strict separation of church and state a cornerstone of political life for well over a century.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Brian Love; Editing by Andrew Callus/Mark Heinrich)</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-the-burkini-2016-8" >The story behind the 'burkini,' the swimwear for Muslim women that cities in France tried to ban</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-judge-in-french-rivieras-nice-deals-further-blow-to-burkini-foes-2016-9#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p>